Network Marketing on-line has taken a drastic turn with new technology thwarting us at every turn. Our e-mails are eaten by SPAM guard, our cookies crumbled by anti-spy, and our banners and sites blocked by ad blockers, graphic blockers, and firewalls. Imagine for a minute though that you own no computer, there is no internet, and you are lucky to have a phone. TV is thought of as a fad that will pass in time and the radio is the only mass media in sight. The date is not important but the era was the 1950’s and my dad sold Kirby Vacuums door to door. I know, you are thinking, “What has that got to do with me?”, but wait.
Dad’s journey would take him from town to town and door to door and most doors resulted in sore toes and one more reminder that this might not be the job for him. Ever feel like that about your online business? You are not alone. My dad soon decided the door to door thing was just plain senseless, and when he knew he was going to be in a town the next week he would drive over that weekend and pay a boy a couple bucks to post flyers around town and call Kirby to arrange an appointment to see this amazing vacuum.
Yes, back to 2007, and our banners are blocked, our sites and ads not viewed. Ok back in time once more as we look at the concept here. My Dad automated a part of his business by posting flyers and setting meetings. He was gathering hot leads targeted to his product and saved tons of sore toes. Since he was in one town for 3-5 days he could not go to 500 homes and make money off the 5-10 that let him in, instead he spoke only with people who wanted a vacuum cleaner.
See, this is why we spend so much time gathering leads and building an e-mail list, and why those list have been so effective, but now at every turn we find those very ads blocked. If we are very successful the e-mail host block our IP, and opt-in or not they sometimes even report us for SPAM. The field when you have the tools to do it right is still dangerous because of false claims, and common assumptions, like safe list for example. A safe list member can get over 5,000 e-mails a day from one list, and even though you and the member know it’s not SPAM the e-mail host says hey, no-one in their right mind wants 5,000 e-mails this site must be SPAMMING them to death and blocks the IP. The safe list owner is never told of this so do blame them if you find your favorite is being blocked on MSN and Yahoo and hang it up on AOL.
So the point in our topic was getting back to the basics of network marketing to save it’s future. The latest craze is social networking and it relates back to dad’s Kirby. See, the right targeted community, just like this forum is full of people looking for that proverbial vacuum cleaner, they are a targeted crowd looking for a specific item. Some are here for knowledge and if you feed them information they follow like flies. Some are here for advertising and may miss the point entirely, but all are here to make money in one way or another.
They say you catch more flies with honey and that also holds true. No matter how good the ad or how much training on paper you do more people will follow a friend that supports them than anyone. See it’s somewhat like the concept of something free in every issue, you keep feeding their mind and they keep coming back for more. The more personal the level of support and the more people will take the bait and follow your lead. On forums, in chat-rooms, and even on My Space the person who follows up and follows through will have more friends and a greater level of success.
So what do you need to do to get to point B? Take each word of this forum, each piece of text on every site, and all that stuff from the e-books you read and digest every drop until it pours from your head like water. Be the guy in the know and share what you know at every venue and you can develop a following that would stand beside you in any marketing battle. The time you spend with each new down-line member counts towards this too. Show them support, teach them a system, make them a friend, and earn them some money and you will see that same name in program after program helping you grow rich. Network marketing has changed a lot over the years, and while a lot of it is for the good, some has hurt us. Since the invention of the internet we have the ability to reach millions at the touch of a button, but in our haste to reach millions we often forget the few that make our teams core. Soon they will forget about us and move on to do the same with others. Network marketing is not about the numbers, it’s about the people. You can have 100 people in your 1st level and make less than the guy with 10 good people who get 10 good people and works the system to its fullest. The support and training system always starts with you, step forward and be a leader and your team will follow and do as you do. Set and forget like an ad on a classified site and you will lose.
